Engineering Contest Challenges Kids to Fix School

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Think back to when you were a kid in school. What bugged you? A
locker that was too small to fit your backpack? How about the
stench that filled the hallways when students tackled their first
dissections?

In conjunction with National Engineers Week (Feb. 17-23),
manufacturing company Raytheon launched a contest on Facebook
challenging kids in grades K-12 to solve the physical problems
they face at school. Kids can pick anything (big or small) from
their school life and describe how it could be redesigned to
provide a better experience. Kids can win up to $2,000 for their
classrooms.

Raytheon's Build It Better contest is part of the company's
MathMovesU student outreach program, which encourage kids to
consider science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
careers.

This is not a written essay contest. Entries must be in the form
of a photo essay, video or detailed drawing, which opens up the
contest to even the youngest students, as long as they have a
willing parent with a camera. Raytheon will judge solutions based
on creativity, effectiveness and whether the entry itself is both
informative and entertaining. Contestants can upload entries to
Raytheon's MathMovesU
page on Facebook.

Nor is the contest reserved for advanced math
students , a commonly held misperception about engineers that
hampers the industry's efforts to recruit kids to the field.

"There is no one type of person who becomes an engineer,"
EngineerYourLife.org, a non-profit group dedicated to encouraging
girls to pursue STEM careers, says on its site. "If you know kids
who are creative, like collaborating with others, are curious and
persistent, and like solving problems, then you know some
potential engineers
."

Deadline for entries is April 19, 2013. (A parent or teacher must
submit an entry on behalf of a student.) Raytheon will select 10
finalists. From May 1-17, Facebook users can vote on their
favorites in order to determine the top three winners.